Automating HR Benefits Management Strategic Success

8/7/2019 Automating HR Benefits Management Strategic Success

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Automating BenetsManagement forStrategic Success

How process automation increasesproductivity and allows your work-force management team to invest moretime in strategic initiatives for longterm success.

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ASCENTIS WHITE PAPER: Automating HR and Benets Management for Strategic Success

Table of Contents

Maximizing the potential of the HR department ................. 3

What to look for in an HRIS .................................................... 4

Benets for the entire organization ........................................ 5

Essential features ....................................................................... 7

The future of HRIS .................................................................... 8

Conclusion ................................................................................. 9




Maximizing the potential of the HR department

HR departments in mid-tier organizations are models of versatility.

Their responsibilities include everything from answering employee

questions about health benets and vacation time and sorting out

the process of employee reviews, to high level long term planning

and organization of training, employee retention plans, managemen

development and other important issues that fundamentally aect

the productivity and success of the organization.

Most organizations of this size would agree that they would greatly

benet from their HR professionals having the opportunity to focus

more of their energies on strategic issues, as is the case in larger

organizations. It is no secret that the top-performing companies inthe S&P 500 are the ones that have the strongest focus on employee

development.

However, in reality, the majority of their HR departments time and

resources is consistently taken up with day-to-day tactical issues

up to ve hours of every eight-hour day, some studies suggest.

For larger companies, the technology to automate HR and benets

issues has been available for some time, and is widely used. Howev

the resources and infrastructure required to install and maintain

one of these large and complex systems has made the cost of entry

prohibitive, both nancially and technologically, for companies in th

mid tier. As a result, only about 15% of mid-tier companies have yet

adopted a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) solution.

Today, soware solutions are emerging that can provide a practical

answer to organizations of this size. The problem then becomes how

to choose the one that is the best t for their requirements and that

aordable, exible and agile enough to cope with constant change,whether it comes from within the organization or from legislation

such as HIPAA and the E-sign Act.

The majority of an

HR departments

time and resources

is consistently

taken up with day-

to-day tactical

issues - up to

ve hours of

every eight-

hour day some

studies suggest.




What to look for in an HRIS

First and foremost, a good HRIS needs to be based on a solid,

modern technology foundation.

A quick survey of the marketplace will show that there is a wide

range of solutions available today. Further study, however, will

reveal that most of them are designed for very large organizations,

costly to set up and maintain, based on heavy-duty legacy

technology and requiring the services of an army of consultants to

keep them operational. Most of the systems designed for smaller

organizations concentrate heavily on either HR functions such as

aendance and compensation, or on benets management, but lack

the ability to combine the two issues.

To be a practical investment choice for a mid-tier organization, a

satisfactory HRIS solution must have its HR and benets functions

highly integrated. It must be both agile and robust in order that it ca

easily be kept abreast of constant change, and it must be built on a

tried and true foundation that is both easy to use and maintain, such

as a modern database like SQL Server.

Ease of use is a vitally important feature for an HRIS. The learning

curve on any new soware is oen a challenge for people whose

primary function is non-technical, such as the average HR consultan

It is important that if the investment is made in a product, it is

accepted to the extent that it becomes part of the fabric of the

department. There are three things to look for that will make an

HRIS easier to use and more accepted by sta:

Wizards: Wizard-based technology makes it easy for sta to

enter or import information and make changes and updates, by

following through a set of simple instructional, ll-in the blanksforms on the screen, rather than their having to learn to program

or call in the consultants.

Strong HR facilities combined with exible benet capabilities

The system should be able to handle compensation, aendance

and recruitment, and legal requirements such as FMLA and

OSHA, while integrating them with benets issues such as

COBRA.

A satisfactory

HRIS must have its

HR and benets

functions highly

integrated, must

be agile and robust

... and must be

easy to use,

congure and

maintain.




Role-based operation: A good HRIS solution should be able

to cater to the needs of a wide range of people and functions

within the organization, and should appear seamlessly tailored

to their requirements. Role based administration is becoming

increasingly important in the HRIS marketplace. With this featur

HR administrators can dene what an individual can see in the

system, allowing managers access to the information they need

about their particular team, while locking them out of informatio

that is not pertinent to them. Role based administration can

extend further into proactive alertinga particular manager or

management level can be automatically alerted by the system

that it is time to conduct a review, for instance, with those alerts

being based on the specic mangers role and needs within the

organization.

Benets for the entire organization

There are three constituencies whose needs must be addressed in

the selection of a new HRIS solution: HR and IT managers, the HR

department itself, and the customers, i.e., the executives, manage

and other employees of the company.

HR and IT managers must be satised that they have chosen the

best tool for the jobone that is going to oer a good return on thei

investment of both nancial and time resources; the HR department

must nd that the solution allows them to become strategic thinker

rather than data processors, and employees must nd that they are

receiving a more ecient service and are able to make beer and

easier choices.

Unless the chosen solution oers benets to everyone in the

organization, it will not succeed.

For HR and IT managers, the questions are largely scal and

organizational:

Will one solution span both benets and HR requirements,

or will it be necessary to integrate products from dierent

vendors to fulll their requirements?

Is the system aordable and within the budget of a midsized

organization?

Unless the

chosen solution

offers benets

to everyone in

the organization,

it will not

succeed.




Is the system intuitive enough for people with a wide range o

dierent skill levels?

Is the solution provider a solid and reputable company who

will be there in future years to provide upgrades and suppor

as technology changes?

Will the installation and startup take so long and be so

expensive that it wont be possible to congure all of

the features?

What is the total cost of ownership over time? Will consultan

be returning repeatedly to reprogram the system for new or

dierent benet plans, to implement dierent features,

or to train employees?

For HR personnel, the issues are more focused on operationalmaers:

Will it reduce their workload, for instance, by allowing

them to ooad some of the burden of managing employee

data to departmental managers?

Will it automate mundane tasks such as notication of event

(management reviews, etc.,) in order to allow them to work

on more important issues for the organization, such

as employee retention policies, workforce optimization

programs, or training and education aimed at improving

productivity?

Will the system be user-friendly enough so average HR

administrators and employees can and will use it?

Will this increase employee satisfaction and productivity, and

enable beer choices for employees?

Employees are more likely to be focused on the end results:

Will it enable them to access HR information, such as howmany vacation days they have available or when their

next salary review is due, quickly and easily?

Will it ensure that personal information, such as dependents,

addresses and emergency contacts stay up to date?

Will it increase the range of benet plan choices available to

them and make it easier for them to choose the correct bene

plan?

For HR and IT

managers, the

questions are

largelyscal and

organizational.

For HR personnel,

the issues are

more focused on

operations.

Employees are more

likely to be focused

on the

end results.




Will it provide easy access for them to information such as

lists of approved doctors and explanations of benet

coverage?

Will it reduce the number of errors in medical claims?

Employees are also seeking easier access to information about their

own organization, other employees and how to reach them, as well

as beer communication from management about critical corporate

issues that could directly aect them.

Essential features

There are ve key features that an HRIS needs to address. These

features will make it easy to manage a range of HR issues, employeebenet plans, and benets enrollment maers:

Integration of all HR management functions. Information

about compensation, aendance, FMLA and other HR

functions should be readily accessible to appropriate

employees.

Ease of use. The program should be easily congurable by

HR and benets managers. Importing data and conguration

of HR policies, benet plans, leave types, etc., should all be

easily done without requiring formula-building or the

programming services of expensive consultants. In

addition, ease of use should extend to the systems reporting

capabilities commonly-used reports should be

preformaed so the user doesnt have to learn a complicated

report writer.

Support for all plan types. This includes oering the

exibility to include non-traditional voluntary benets such a

prepaid legal, AFLAC, dental coverage, parking or even

membership of a local health club. Distribution of workload across the organization. Manager

should have access to the information and tools they need to

eectively manage their own stas.

A powerful and exible benets engine for full benets

management. This must be able to calculate eligibility,

volumes and costs. Reporting features should include

facilities to alert managers of any issues in reconciliation or

dierences in bills received from plan providers.

There areve

key features that

an HRIS needs to

address. These

features will make

it easy to manage a

range of HR issues,

employee benet

plans, and benets

enrollment matters.




The Future of HRIS

In looking at HRIS solutions, it is important to look at the longer-

term prospects for the technology. The HR industry is in a state of

ux, and any product that a company installs today must be based

on a platform that can readily and rapidly adapt to change, and mu

oer concrete plans for coping with the future.

In an ideal world, widespread, electronically enabled end-to-end H

management and benets enrollment would be the norm. Employee

themselves would be able to perform many operations such as

online benets enrollment and selection, the updating of personal

information, and other tasks such as viewing compensation and

benets information that are currently performed for them by anHR professional. Relevant data would be routed based on business

processes, allowing role-based task assignment and monitoring,

allowing team leaders to manage their own sta without the consta

need for the services of the HR department.

Two things are helping turn this concept of complete end-to-end

benets enrollment into a reality. First of all, the advent of the HIPA

Administrative Simplication laws. By making the acceptance of

standard electronic data formats mandatory for all carriers and

benet vendors across the country, HIPAA makes it possible for

soware vendors to create a common interface using these new dat

standards, allowing enrollment information to be transferred to the

insurance carriers and TPAs electronically, eliminating the error

prone manual system that exists today.

Secondly, leading vendors of HRIS solutions are ensuring that

their soware is fully Internet enabled and able to transfer data

electronically to benets carriers. This is a key concept in making

complete end-to-end benets enrollment a viable proposition. Itenables the user through employee self-service to access and use

their HR and benets information from just about anywhere. It

makes electronic benets enrollment possible and will also allow

online premium remiance, whether via the Internet, a Virtual

Private Network, or through a standard modem connection.

Leading vendors of

HRIS solutions are

ensuring that their

software is fully

Internet enabled

and able to

transfer data

electronically

to carriers.

This is a key

concept in making

complete end-

to-end benets

enrollment a viable

proposition.


9/9


Conclusion

In todays rapidly changing business environment, the need for the

HR department to be freed to be a more of a strategic force in the

organization has become apparent. In order for this to happen, it is

essential that mundane, day-to-day tasks be automated.

This automation must be brought about in such a way that the HR

department can truly become more productive, rather than simply

exchanging one set of tactical tasks for another, and it must be

done cost-eectively. The solution chosen has to be easily usable

and congurable by regular HR sta. In a constantly and rapidly

changing environment such as HR, it isnt practical for every minor

change in policy to require precious resource be spent on employingoutside consultants to recongure systems.

The chosen solution also has to oer signicant benets to end user

employees, whether they will use it in a self-service fashion, or sti

receive their answers through the HR department. These benets

include immediately apparent advantages such as faster and more

accurate responses and less reporting errors, but also more importa

and long-term features such as a broader range of benet choices.

Lastly, the chosen solution has to oer a solid return on investment.

Not only through greater employee satisfaction and the freeing of th

HR department for more important strategic functions, but in actua

terms of reduced benet costs through greater eciency in plan

administration, less errors and faster pick-up of problems and issue

Automation

must be brought

about in such a

way that the HR

department can

truly become more

productive,

rather than simply

exchanging one set

of tactical tasks

for another, and it

must be done cost-

effectively.

Workforce Management Made Easy

www.Ascentis.com

1.800.229.2713

[email protected]

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Automating HR Benefits Management Strategic Success